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DISCLAIMER: Please note that this is not a mod, nor a mod suggestion. This is a suggestion for Mojang to add to vanilla Minecraft.

Hello! I would like to share my ideas of how Gryphons might be a good addition to Minecraft. After deciding to post my suggestion here, I did a search and saw that there have been a few posts about Gryphons throughout the past few years. But they were quite different from what i had in mind, focused on a wide swath of mythical creatures, or mod/add-on related.

My hope is that others will share my vision for simple, balanced, non-immersion-breaking, Mojang-style Gryphons to be added to Minecraft in a future patch.

Here it goes:

A way I could see Gryphons fitting into the Minecraft universe is that in an "Extreme Hills" biome, you could find a nest either on top of a mountain, or on the side of a cliff. I imagine the nest would only be one or perhaps two blocks large and in the shape of an eagle's nest. In my opinion, the player would never see a wild adult Gryphon. The only chance they would have at seeing a Gryphon would be if they raised one themselves. Thus making them FAR more rare and special. Almost like finding diamonds. If the player were lucky enough to find one of these nests, and endured the journey to reach it, they would see an egg sitting in the middle of the nest.

The player would then follow these steps to hatch, raise, saddle and then ride their Gryphon:

The player would take the egg from the nest and bring it back to their home/cave/castle/dwelling and place it on a block of dirt underneath a torch.

The player would then have to wait a couple of in-game days.

After a few days pass, a baby Gryphon would emerge.

The player would then have to feed the baby Gryphon meat or fish once a day for a couple days.

After a couple days of feeding, the baby Gryphon would grow into an adult, ready to be saddled.

The player would then place a regular saddle, the type used on pigs, onto their newly raised Gryphon.

Upon being saddled, the player's new Gryphon is ready to be mounted. But that doesn't mean the player can have unlimited, overpowered flight. No sir.

BALANCE:
Just because the player has a Gryphon doesn't mean he or she is able to fly anywhere they want with no limitations. Far from it. This will be nothing like flying in creative mode. It will be a slight advantage over regular walking and jumping that the player will have earned.

Instead of unlimited flight, like in creative mode, a Gryphon rider's flight would be slightly challenging yet still useful. Much like how boats function in Minecraft.

In order to take off, and to stay in the air, the player would have to press their space bar for every flap of their Gryphon's wings. This means that the Gryphon, just like the player, is effected by the game's gravity. That way, it wouldn't feel like cheating. This may sounds difficult, but i think it would lead to a much more immersive Gryphon flying experience!

Traveling via Gryphon would sometimes be slightly faster and more convenient than walking on foot, but in some cases it would also be a FAR worse alternative to walking. For example, trying to fly your Gryphon down into and through a cave would be a TERRIBLE idea.

USES:
If you have built a giant castle like my brother and I have, which i'm sure MANY of you have, then I have a feeling you'll understand why I think the best use for a Gryphon would be to quickly reach one of the top floors of your castle without having to climb all of it's inner stair cases and ramps.

But there would be many, many more uses, such as:

Getting past mountains a little faster than on foot, and without the need to eat as much.

Flying over lakes or rivers instead of having to swim.

Safe late night traveling. That is, unless you get shot by a skeleton's arrow

Being able to leave from the top floor of your castle or other large dwelling.

FUN! Or atleast i think it would be.

GAME FITTING:
The last thing I would ever want is to suggest an idea that would ruin the immersion of Minecraft. I believe this idea would be game fitting for Minecraft because of the wonderful animals Mojang has already put into the game. When I think of Gryphons in Minecraft, I can just picture an in-game Gryphon done in Mojang's wonderfully simple yet beautiful art style... All block-ish and colorful

GAME BREAKING?:
No more than a boat would be. You would hardly be able to aim at someone with a bow, let alone actually hit them with an arrow from it. Hitting a player or mob with a sword would be even harder. In order to deal damage to anything, from bow or sword, you'd have to land your Gryphon and completely stop moving. At that point, you would actually become vulnerable due to lack of mobility (You cannot walk or run on a Gryphon, only fly. And take-off isn't instant, due to the need to flap your Gryphons wings.). This is not a mount intended for combat.

Thanks for reading and sorry for the giant wall of text.

I would like to thank Theriasis for their wonderful guide on how to post on the suggestion forum. I tried my best to follow their advice!

CONCEPT ART :
Standing:
Sitting:
Flying:
Model views:

MORE ART:Click this spoiler for even more concept art and photos.

Brooding box

Dimninds!

NOTE: This photo is an inside joke and purely for fun. We do NOT suggest that Gryphons should EVER shoot diamonds. Or dimninds. Click this spoiler to proceed

Roosts

Special thanks to Papertiger for all of the awesome concept art, avatars and signature banners!

SUPPORTER SUGGESTIONS:
You guys have given me many awesome suggestions so i decide to place the most game fitting and balanced ones here:

Disclaimer: I will try my best to describe your guys' ideas and list the names of the people who have suggested them. Let me know if i miss something!

Disclaimer II: This thread is rapidly gaining support and unfortunately i can't always keep track of who has suggested what. I'm most likely to miss some people who deserve credit, sorry. Let me know if i do!

0. HEALTH, HUNGER AND MORTALITY (pinballboy7, Droideka30, Papertiger, zeel, ErasmoGnome, IonicTiger): One of the most talked about suggestions. The idea that tamed Gryphons should have health, hunger and be killable by mobs, other players or enviromental conditions (lava, etc.). It has also been suggested that if your Gryphon gets hungry enough, it will bite/peck at you in frustration, buck you off if you attempt to mount it, or even go off and eat wild animals and/or livestock (pigs, chickens, sheep, cows).

1. Soaring (Papertiger, Droideka30, zeel, crazeenuthead): You should be able to hold down the space bar to make your Gryphon soar, once you have already achieved altitude and speed

2. Wild adult Gryphons in the sky (Papertiger, Paradox01010, zeel): You shoud sometimes be able to see wild Gryphons flying high up (out of reach) in the sky. Perhaps flying in the direction of where a nest and egg is. This would most likely be rare.

3. Walking (Kisdee, RobertFrans): Instead of strictly being able to fly and hop, a mounted Gryphon would be able to slowly walk on the land as well. It would be unable to move up and down blocks (like a pig), but you could just press spacebar to flap its wings in order to hop up to where ever you are trying to get.

4. Breeding (Droideka30, Papertiger, zeel): If you are lucky, and skilled enough, to obtain two Gryphon eggs, and now are the proud owner of two Gryphons, you should earn the right to breed them. Once Gryphons breed, they would lay one egg. It has also been suggested that tamed Gryphons can only breed during a full moon and that when bred in captivity, Gryphons need a "Brooding box" in which to lay their eggs. See Papertiger's brooding box concept art here

5. Gryphon melee attack (Paradox01010, zeel): Your Gryphon would be able to do damage and/or a knockback to enemies that you dive at with it. This would be hard, but if you were able to steer your Gryphon properly, you would inflict damage fairly.

6. A special way to take the egg (Moosemunchee, zeel, RobertFrans, IonicTiger, zapper990): The idea that the player shouldn't simply be able to punch the Gryphon egg until it breaks and then pick it up. Perhaps the player would have to use a pickaxe with the Silk Touch enchant, a piston, minecart and rail, diamond pickaxe, shovel or something else. It has also been suggested that Gryphon nests and eggs should spawn only in the spring and despawn in the fall, meaning that you can never find them in the winter.

8. Visual roll while turning (bebe33): The idea that a Gryphon should roll slightly while turning, for visual effect. Much like how a bird rolls as it turns in real life.

9. Pitch (bebe33, zeel): The idea that you should be able to pitch your Gryphon up and down while flying. Pitching it downwards will increase your forward momentum. Pitching it upwards will increase altitude.

10. Thrust (zeel): The idea that you should be able to choose the level of thrust per wing flap based on your timing and space bar usage. (Half flaps, full thrust flaps, etc).

Wing angle: Space bar controls flapping, the W A S D keys control the angle of the wings. W angles them down/forward, S andgles back, A and D angle them opposite each other (A: left down, right up. D: left up, right down). This causes role/banking, witch lets you turn, basically A and D let you turn. Flapping while holding one of the W A S D keys will cause thrust in that direction. With W flapping will thrust you forward (no keys basically only gives you upwards thrust), accelerating you. S will cause the flap to come forward, giving reverse thrust, to slow you down (or fly slightly in reverse when taking off). Flapping with A or D will tighten the turn.

Turning: I have already mentioned two ways to turn, but here is the in depth part. Holding W and looking will cause a very slow turn, holding A or D (whatever direction you wish to turn) will cause you to bank in that direction, this makes the turn much tighter. Using both turning methods at the same time is even better, and causes you to bank much more. If, once you have banked to the maximum level, then flap the wings you will turn drastically in that direction, though you will lose a lot more speed than you would in a normal turn.

12. Armor! (zeel, papertiger, Droideka30, IonicTiger): The idea that Gryphons should be able to equip special Gryphon-only armor. There would be leather, iron, gold and diamond versions. The better the quality of the armor, the higher movement speed penalty the Gryphon would suffer due to the weight. It has been suggested that you only find these pieces of armor in Strongholds.

13. Inventory (papertiger, Droideka30, zeel, IonicTiger): The idea that you should be able to place an item similar to a saddle bag or pouch on your Gryphon's back that would act as a chest and the Gryphon's inventory. This may or may not be where you would equip Gryphon-only armor at.

14. Talon grab (SkarmorySilver, papertiger): The idea that your Gryphon should be able to grab things with it's talons on command while mounted. Possible things Gryphons could grab: mobs, players, items, blocks. To make it balanced, if your Gryphon did grab a mob or player, the mob or player would still be able to aim up and attack the Gryphon and/or it's rider. With this form of balance in mind, the player would be able to use it's Gryphon to drop mobs from great heights, inflicting falling damage. This would be at the risk of the Gryphon and the Player's health and well being, however.

What if the nest, instead of spawning on the side of a cliff, would spawn on a massive spire that, depending on the hight of the mountain it spawned on, would range any where from a mere twenty blocks high, or a staggering hundered blocks high, and wouldn't end until it reached a few blocks above cloud level, thus forcing you to fight the adult gryphon?

The spire would be a jagged piller of rock, twisted and craved by the wind, as it has stood for a millennium, awe inspiring by its sheer size.
The design of it would have to be carefully considered; if too thin in, it would look a bit... strange; I would prefer it to be at least 7 blocks by 7 blocks, but, players would be able to tunnel right under the tower (assuming that it was hollow), and build a dirt tower to come out right under the egg.
You could fill the inside of the spire with lava, but this would be massively off theme.
Possibly the easiest solution to this problem would be to have to tower made of obsidian, and it would not be hollow. You could tunnel under it, but it would be easier to just fight the mother.
Also, as a few pages back there was talk of gryphons, being the most noble of beasts, collecting treasure, why not have blocks of gold, diamond, and emerald embedded in the spire?
They (the aforermetioned valuable minerals) would randomly spawn in the outer most layer of the spire, but there would only be a maximum number of only six blocks spawning in a tower that could be a hundred blocks high, so even getting them would be a mighty challenge.

16. Lance and saddle mounted lance holder (firewave15): firewave15 has suggested that there should lances and saddle mounted lance holders that the player could use from Gryphon and also possibly Horse back. The saddle mounted lance holder would be required in order for the player to maintain control of his mount whilst using a lance. The lance would do damage based on the speed that your Gryphon is traveling upon the point of impact with an enemy. The lance would have a longer reach than a sword, making it ideal for mounted combat. But it would be useless for anything else. The mounted lance holder would most likely break after a set number of uses, perhaps 50.

17. Fear of fire (IonicTiger): The idea that Gryphon's should be afraid of fire, and will not fly within 5 blocks of any fire. This would add balance to PVP ground vs air combat, making players on the ground slightly more defended from Gryphon riders. Players on the ground would still be vulnerable to a Gryphon rider's bow and splash potions, however.

It would prevent gryphon riders from totally dominating the battle-field, but would be small enough as to not render gryphon useless in PVP.

CALL TO ARMS... AND TWEETS... AND REDDITS!I encourage all of our supporters and/or bannerlords to tweet @Dinnerbone and @Jeb_ so that they can become aware of Gryphons and perhaps add them in a future patch. It worked for the "Colored glass" suggestion. They tweeted and got noticed and now have a good shot at having their idea added. We can do it too, guys!

EDIT LOG: There are now some concept screenshots further on down this page in a recent post. Added a game breaking? section. Added amazing concept art, avatar and banner by Papertiger.Added a "Supporter Suggestions" section.Added a poll. Added "tweet and support us". Added banner info and bannerlords. Added more concept art inside of spoilers.Added call to arms... And tweets, replacing the old tweet section.Added a disclaimer about this not being a mod or mod suggestion, but rather a vanilla suggestion.

Great work, you did a good job balancing it. Would the Griffin grow tired from flying? That would help balance it.

Great question! I was wondering that myself. I was thinking you would have to keep it fed with meats or fish. Much like the player has to keep themselves fed or else they cannot sprint. (In the Xbox360 release, atleast. I haven't played PC Minecraft for some time)

I made some roosts and took some pictures to show the types of structures players might create to house their Gryphons.

Sorry for the poor image quality. These were made in the Xbox360 release and the "Share to Facebook" option isn't currently working so i had to take these with a camera. I play the PC version of Minecraft too but i find the Xbox release more relaxing.

In fact.. when my brother JDE told me about his idea for survival mode gryphons, I supported it so much that we collaborated together to make some concept art to help illustrate how awesome this would be.

I don't think gryphons would be gamebreaking in the least, since there's no distinct combat advantage (by design) and honestly there are already plenty of survival-mode-created things that make server play "interesting".. Setting a pack of dogs on an opponent for example.
If anything, gryphons on server play could be disabled (i.e. Admins can enable/disable a 'No Flying Mounts' option similar to how they can already enable/disable flying for users), but I think they would add more than they would detract.. They're rare and hard to get, so how cool would it be to earn the ability to fly around and save time with your team? Think about how awesome it is to finally work your way together towards getting an enchanting table, and have magical weapons to brandish. Imagine working as a team to scale mountains and find a gryphon egg, deciding who would get the first, sending them off on missions etc.. Or a whole team that can fly to the village to trade goods and then soar back after nightfall. It would be something earned, and I would LOVE to have this.

The possibilities seem pretty exciting...

One idea I would like to add is that you could HOLD spacebar to soar after you have achieved a good altitude... Pressing spacebar would lift you up a finite amount and then gravity would take hold and you would begin to lose altitude, or you have the option to hold spacebar and continue forward momentum with wings outspread but not drop like a rock.. That way there is some versatility in different ways you can fly. Repeated flapping and aiming the mouse upwards, to fly to top of a castle for instance.. or repeated flapping aimed at the horizon or higher to aim over trees, and then soaring for some distance before needing to regain altitude, for long trips. Repeated presses for height. Holding for distance. No?

Wow. Full support. How much health does it have? Also, I would suggest that holding space lets you hover while slowly losing altitude, and if you let go of space while high in the air, you fall down a little faster than a chicken and don't take fall damage.Oh, and can you breed them?

Wow. Full support. How much health does it have? Also, I would suggest that holding space lets you hover while slowly losing altitude, and if you let go of space while high in the air, you fall down a little faster than a chicken and don't take fall damage.

Oh, and can you breed them?

Thanks for your support. In my opinion, the Gryphons shouldn't have health, per se. I don't really think they should be killable, because of how hard it would be to obtain a Gryphon in the first place. Also because they can't fight back.

Maybe if they took enough damage, they would fly away. Or simply refuse to let you mount them until you fed them some meat or fish.

As for breeding... I tend to think they shouldn't be able to breed, due to how rare they should be. Although, if you were lucky enough to find two eggs in the wild... Maybe you should deserve the right to breed them. Hmm... If they were able to breed, they would lay eggs. I know that much for sure.

And yes, i totally agree with Papertiger and You about how Gryphons should be able to glide or hover if you HOLD spacebar. And also about reduced falling speed. I agree that even if you completely let go of spacebar and stop flapping, that a Gryphon would never take falling damage. It would fall in the same fashion a chicken would, like you said.

Though I think you should be able to see adult gryphons in the wild. But. The adults would not hang around the nest unless you go to close (this makes it so you cant find the nest to easily). You should not be able to tame adult gryphons. If you get to close to the nest, the parents will attack you by trying to push you off the mountain or ledge you are on. This makes getting the egg a little more difficult. And I dont think anyone would really want to kill a gryphon just to get the egg.

*edit
By attack, I mean sort of like the Ender Dragon. But you dont receive damage from them pushing you, you simmply get pushed into the air, possibly over the edge. It could be like knockback II but no damage delivered except fall damage.

Though I think you should be able to see adult gryphons in the wild. But. The adults would not hang around the nest unless you go to close (this makes it so you cant find the nest to easily). You should not be able to tame adult gryphons. If you get to close to the nest, the parents will attack you by trying to push you off the mountain or ledge you are on. This makes getting the egg a little more difficult. And I dont think anyone would really want to kill a gryphon just to get the egg.

*edit
By attack, I mean sort of like the Ender Dragon. But you dont receive damage from them pushing you, you simmply get pushed into the air, possibly over the edge. It could be like knockback II but no damage delivered except fall damage.

Thanks for the feedback. Your suggestion for seeing adult Gryphons in the wild might be pretty neat... And i agree that adult Gryphons should never be able to be tamed.

Honestly, your suggestion is a good one, and well said, but i'm still not sure if there should ever be wild adult Gryphons. I guess that would be up to Mojang to decide!

I don't know if there should or shouldn't be adult gryphons in the wild... But what if you only ever see them way up high in the sky flying in the direction of where the eggs are? They would fly too fast to follow... And you would only ever see them randomly maybe between every 7-20 days or something.. But they would point you (not directly, just generally) in the right direction?

Do you need to use saddles on them? And Carrot on a stick?
I know it doesn't really make sense considering it's a carnivore, but I'd rather not have separate items for controlling different mounts.

Yes you must use a regular saddle once your baby Gryphon grows into an adult.

No, you don't have to use a carrot on a stick. They are intelligent creatures, much like a horse, and understand which way their rider intends to move. (It would work kinda like how you steer a boat in-game)